Brownsville staff outline multi-year streets and drainage capital program, including Coffee Road phases and West Brownsville drainage work

Maribel Guerrero, director for engineering and public works, and Doro Garcia, assistant city manager, presented the City of Brownsville’s proposed five-year capital improvement program (CIP) for streets and drainage during a special work session on Aug. 28 in the City Commission Chambers.

Guerrero opened the presentation by warning commissioners that it would be lengthy: “This is gonna be a long presentation,” she said, and then described reconstruction projects, phased work on Coffee Road, sidewalk gaps, alley repairs and drainage investments. Garcia summarized the broader approach and emphasized savings from doing work in-house.

The presentation laid out proposed or in-progress full-reconstruction projects that staff said will add curb and gutter, drainage, utility upgrades, lighting and multimodal sidewalks or shared bike-pedestrian facilities. Staff identified the following as primary reconstruction projects discussed: Old Highway 77 (limits described as FM 802 / Ruben Torres Boulevard to Morrison Road), Wild Rose Lane (Honeydell to Korea), Old Alice Road (North Runnage Road to Ruben Torres Boulevard), Coffee Road (divided into Phase 1 from FM 802 to Paredes Line Road and Phase 2 from Paredes Line Road to Old Port Isabel Road), Dennett Road (Paredes Line Road to Queenswood) and East Fourteenth Street (Southmost Boulevard to International Boulevard).

Staff said Coffee Road will be built in two phases because of heavy traffic and the need for right-of-way acquisitions on the longer eastern segment. Coffee Road Phase 1 was estimated in the presentation at about $6,000,000 and Phase 2 at about $9,000,000; Old Alice Road and East Fourteenth were each cited at roughly $5,000,000; Dennett Road was cited at about $6,000,000. For several projects staff noted design percent-complete milestones: East Fourteenth at roughly 90% design, Old Alice Road at about 80% and Coffee Road Phase 1 at 100% design.

On Old Highway 77, staff described utility coordination with the Brownsville Public Utilities Board (BPUB) and said the project requires relocation or potholing to resolve conflicts with an existing sanitary sewer line; staff described the finished cross section as multiple travel lanes in places, curb and gutter, stormwater improvements and separate pedestrian/bike facilities.

Guerrero and Garcia also reviewed the city’s in-house mill-and-overlay program and alley/paving proposals. Guerrero said the city’s in-house mill-and-overlay plan for the coming year includes 13 streets totaling a little over four miles and that performing that work in-house yields roughly $1,000,000 in savings compared with contracting the work. Staff said in-house mill-and-overlay typically produces roughly a 47–50% cost savings versus contracting for the same work.

On alleys, staff said the city has funding for alley mill-and-overlay projects for FY25 and FY26 and that 13 alleys were identified for FY25 procurement; FY26 lists include additional alley segments that may be done by contractor or in-house depending on crew bandwidth. Downtown alley work was tied to concurrent BPUB water and wastewater projects that will include paving when those utility works finish.

Staff said about $500,000 was allocated for sidewalk gap projects in FY26 and that Wild Rose Lane’s reconstruction will include sidewalks. Guerrero said sidewalk selections prioritized streets recently paved or in locations with high pedestrian traffic, including routes to schools.

The presentation also covered traffic-calming and preventative maintenance. Staff told commissioners that a list of 16 speed-hump applications has been approved for installation pending traffic counts and that speed-hump unit costs range from roughly $10,000 to $16,000 each. Garcia said the city will initiate a crack-sealing and seal-coating program the coming year; staff explained seal coating is typically applied on pavements about three to seven years old and can extend pavement life by several years when combined with routine crack sealing.

On drainage, Garcia described a portfolio of projects and funding sources. Staff reported the West Brownsville drainage project has been completed and that other projects are at various stages: the Impala ditch lining will be re-advertised after scope review; the Four Corners detention pond remains under environmental review and requires one more public hearing before advertisement; a series of culvert and conveyance improvements (described in the presentation as a “flood sensors” package but including pipe and culvert work) has been approved in phase 1 and is pending additional Texas Water Development Board approvals for later phases. Garcia also noted the city has installed or coordinated installation of USGS monitoring gauges that provide near‑real‑time water-level data to inform design and operations.

Funding and partners cited in the presentation included Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for downtown utility work, BPUB coordination on utilities, and grants or loan programs administered through the Texas Water Development Board. Staff said right‑of‑way acquisitions are required for some projects (Coffee Road Phase 2 among them) and that phasing adjustments (for example, moving East Fourteenth to FY27) were made to avoid overlapping major construction and to reduce traffic congestion while TxDOT works on International Boulevard.

Commissioners asked questions about heavy-truck loading on reconstructed Fourteenth Street, longevity of mill-and-overlay versus full reconstruction, how sidewalk responsibilities have changed over time, and the safety and work conditions for city street crews. Several commissioners and staff praised the in-house crews and the scale of the current program: “I think that’s really important to thank our dedicated staff for their work and their crews,” Garcia said.

No formal commission vote on the CIP package was recorded in the work session. At the end of the meeting, the commission took a procedural vote to turn the meeting over, then adjourned. Staff indicated several items would return for future actions or hearings, including advertising pending Texas Water Development Board approvals and potential council-level approvals for budget amendments or contract awards.

Why it matters: the projects aim to rebuild aging corridors, add sidewalks and multimodal connections, reduce chronic flooding in priority basins and capture procurement savings by expanding in-house construction. Several projects will require external approvals, additional right-of-way acquisitions or advertising for construction bids before work can start.

Next steps and follow-up noted by staff: further right‑of‑way acquisition work for Coffee Road Phase 2; re-scoped advertisement for Impala ditch lining; a public hearing requirement to clear environmental findings for the Four Corners detention pond; continued coordination with BPUB and TxDOT; and continued staging to avoid overlapping major reconstruction activity.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to “turn it over” (procedural): motion made and seconded; commissioners verbally approved by voice vote during the meeting’s closing; no roll-call tally for named votes was recorded in the transcript.